Conventional combustion, reciprocating engines are widely used as automotive engines. A conventional engine (single-cycle, two-cycle and others) is typically composed of an engine or cylinder assembly having one or more cylinders therein. A piston is slidably disposed in the cylinder and moves reciprocally within the cylinder. A cylinder head at one end of the cylinder closes the cylinder assembly. The cylinder head typically contains the valves (intake and exhaust) and the spark plug. A combustion chamber is defined by an inner wall of the cylinder, a top surface of the piston, along with the cylinder head.
During combustion, the piston moves reciprocally within the cylinder and eventually can wear down the inner walls of the cylinder. Cylindrical shaped liners have been developed to line the walls of the cylinder to increase the life of the cylinder. The liner may have coolant rings on its outer surface to form an annulus between the outer walls of the liner and the inner walls of the cylinder to provide a flow path for cooling liquid or air during combustion. When the liner is worn below a predetermined thickness, it can be replaced with another liner. However, over the course of the liner's life, the coolant rings may melt or other contaminants may harden and make it difficult to remove the liner by hand.
In order to remove a conventional liner, the cylinder head is removed from the cylinder assembly. A conventional liner remover is comprised of a cylindrically shaped rubber component that can be inserted into the liner and then compressed to expand and frictionally engage the liner to remove it from the cylinder. Because the components are rubber, the rubber tends to disintegrate over time or melts if the liner is still hot from a combustion event. Further, the rubber component can only be compressed to a certain point, thus it is limited to a certain diameter of liner and requires many liner removers to be on hand due to different sizes of liners in different engines. The liner can also become greasy due to contact with the fuel mixture or oil in the cylinder or the cooling rings around the liner can melt, thus making it difficult to remove the liner with the rubber components.
Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus and method to remove the liner that will not disintegrate over time, that can be adapted to any size liner, and can be expanded to better grip the liner.